war. Above all, MacArthur could not see eye to eye with his U.S. command. On April 11, 1951, Truman removed MacArthur from command and replaced him with General Ridgeway.23 General Ridgeway restored confidence and built up an aggressive spirit in the allied troops. Ridgeway was tough, flamboyant, and was known to wear two hand grenades on his chest. Thus, he got the nickname “Old Iron Tits”. He established the idea of R and R, (rest and recreation) in which troops rotated on a five day vacation to Japan in order to rest their bodies and minds. The allied troops became revitalized, and inflicted heavy loses on the weary North Korean troops.24 On January 16, 1951, allied troops began a slow, methodical, offensive north, in hopes to end the war. Although the offensive moved slow, it was organized, not like the uncoordinated, speedy offensive led by MacArthur. In the next six weeks, allied forces took Seoul and moved again into North Korea.25 During the Korean War, the first battles between jet aircraft occurred. Unlike in the beginning of the war when the North Koreans used minimal aircraft, toward the end of the war U.S. transport planes were being shot down regularly by Soviet supplied Mig-15 fighter jets. The U.S. quickly countered, and began to mass produce F-86 Saber jets. Dog fights became important to protect the allied transport planes. For the first time, helicopters were used to carry troops in and out of battle. With the new high powered jets, the air force killed over 100,000 communist troops and shoot down over 5000 North Korean planes.26 As the allies pushed father into North Korea, peace talks started at the North Korea city of Panmunjon. The allies wanted two neutral Korean states, but the communists would not consider the negotiations until all of the communist prisoners were freed. Not accepting the communist’s request, a deadlock occurred on all armistice negotiations at Panmunjon. In an attempt to cha...
